Gold mining operations to gain Government support

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The cabinet of Ministers at its irregular meeting on Wednesday discussed ways of increasing the gold mining activities. In order to sustain the economic growth, promote the realistic development of the sector, and to increase the foreign exchange reserve, the Minister of Finance J.Erdenebat and the Minister of Mining R.Jigjid were told to undertake works on promoting the gold mining, studying investment possibilities for the registered gold deposits, and settling the easy-term loan sources. Financing these promotion activities was assigned to the executive director of the Development Bank of Mongolia (DB) N.Monkhbat, whereas a president of the Bank of Mongolia (BoM) B.Zoljargal was obligated to support the development of appropriate financing scheme. The Ministers of Finance and Mining were also charged to provide possibility to take out loans from commercial banks in cases of reaching agreements with any gold-mining companies that are able to continue operations in frames of the amendments to the "Law on Prohibiting Mineral Exploration and Extraction Near Water Sources, Protected Areas and Forests". The cabinet also told the Minister of Environment, Green Development and Tourism D.Oyunkhorol and the Minister R.Jigjid to issue regulations and agreement/contract templates regarding the amendments to the above law, to determine the boundaries of the protected and specially-protected areas within the referred territories of water reserves, and to register and receive resource clarifications, feasibility studies, and detailed analyses of environmental impact, within the first quarter of 2015. D.Oyunkhorol, R.Jigjid, also the Justice and Defence Ministers D.Dorligjav and Ts.Tsolmon were obliged to take under the protection the gold deposits and occurrences that overlap with the state borderlines and special-use areas, and, if required, to consider commercializing such deposits and to develop and present proposals on the issues. Regarding the growth in gold mining operations, the Deputy Premier U.Khurelsukh along with the Ministers of Finance and Mining were told to develop and submit proposals on the capacity building of the Assay Office at the National Agency of Standardization and Metrology, and on the improvement of clearance system.